The invention in France of the Jacquard loom in 1804 -05 changed hand weaving dramatically forever. The mechanism was worked by punched card where each row of holes corresponded with a row of the design on the graph paper. Machines now can do all this in one operation. The designing is done on the computer and the card holes are punched in paste paper card accordingly by machine attached to the computer the card are then laced together to be mounted on the loom.
The cards sit in “boxes” above the weaving and are fed by a mechanism whereby the appropriate warp threads are raised or lowered ,forming the shed for the shuttle carrying the weft thread to pass thorough, recreating the design conceived by the artist into the vibrant silk patterns that emerge under the hands of the weaver. Sometime two three or even four “boxes’ of jacquard card are set up to create those incredible elaborate brocades and picture pallus. the Jacquard loom can produce fine intricate patterns and weave beyond the scope of the adai but the adai produces beautiful, crisp patterns , full of the character or traditional things, much to the delight of those in search of the pristine purity of the worthwhile practices of weavers that now are in danger of being lost in history.
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